Man arrested despite claiming alleged loot from burglary belonged to him

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — On August 11, 2023, a woman called her neighbor to report seeing three unknown male individuals loading property from the neighbor’s residence into a black Tahoe and leaving the area in Fagamalo. After being notified by their neighbor, the homeowner then contacted the Leone substation and reported the incident and stated that he was in Amaluia waiting to corner the black Tahoe.

Officers were dispatched while keeping in contact with a Mr. Faipea — the homeowner — and they observed the black Tahoe in front of the Malaeloa Catholic church. A vehicle stop was then initiated. Ishmael Sefo, who was the driver, and two other individuals identified as Suauupaia Amituana’i and Motu Lagisa, were then brought out of the black Tahoe and placed under arrest, and transported to Leone substation for further investigation. 

After placing all three individuals in separate rooms, Mr. Faipea, his wife, and their neighbor arrived at the Leone substation to provide statements. According to Mr. Faipea, Sefo is his wife’s nephew, and used to live with him and his wife in Fagamalo, but was chased out from their home about a year ago because he kept stealing from them. 

According to Mr. Faipea’s neighbor, she lives across from them and while she was outside, she saw a black vehicle pulling into Faipea’s home, where two unknown male individuals exited the vehicle, while the other remained in the vehicle and backed up to the garage entrance. Because of the angle the vehicle was parked and where she was standing, she was unable to see everything that was going on, but only that she witnessed the individuals carrying out car rims, carpentry tools, and a teapot. 

As the vehicle was leaving, she walked back to the house and immediately phoned Faipea. She was able to identify a skinny tall man with long hair and a tall, dark complexion, and a heavy-set male removing items from inside the house and placing them inside the vehicle. 

During her interview, Mr. Faipea’s wife stated that they were on their way home when they received a call from their neighbor reporting the incident. Upon arriving home, they discovered that two weed eaters, a tool box with tools, car rims, a car tire, tea kettle and food were missing. In addition, she told officers that Sefo was trying to sell a car, a black Toyota Tacoma that belonged to her husband.

On the same day, Amituana’i was Mirandized and provided a statement. 

Amituana’i states that he was at his home in Vaitogi when Lagisa and Sefo stopped by in Lagisa’s car, where he met Sefo and Sefo told him that he is trying to sell a vehicle for a hundred dollars, and if he wa was interested in the offer and wanted to check out the vehicle before purchasing it, Sefo told him that they could inspect the vehicle parked at his home in Fagamalo. 

As they were making their way to Fagamalo, Sefo also told them he has weed eaters and other tools in Fagamalo that can be fixed for a landscaping job that pays up to $200 a month, and upon hearing this, Amituana’i got excited at the prospect of making the extra income. 

As they arrived at Fagamalo, Sefo told him that he lives there and while parking in front of the house, Sefo told him that he’s grabbing items from inside the house and Lagisa helped him. When Sefo was still bringing stuff from the house, several people were looking at them but at the time, he paid no attention to them since Sefo had claimed that he lives there. 

After loading everything into the car, they drove off and as they made their way to Malaeloa, he was surprised when their car was stopped by police, followed by an arrest of all three of them. 

Lagisa was also Mirandized on the same day and provided a statement and answered questions. According to Lagisa, he saw Sefo sitting outside his garage and out of kindness, felt sorry for Sefo so he offered to bring him to his home to spend the night. The next day, Sefo told Lagisa, about a car he owned and was parked at his home in Fagamalo. 

Lagisa was interested and wanted to check the condition of the car, but told Sefo he wanted to pick up Amituana’i, who is a mechanic, to help him make an assessment of the car before purchasing it.

They proceeded to go pick Amituana’i and made their way to Fagamalo. Lagisa when reiterated Amituanai’s statement about the weed eaters and was told by Sefo that he would pay them $200 each to cut his lawn. Lagisa was then advised that the property they had taken from the victim’s home did not belong to Sefo. All items were recovered and returned to Mr. Faipea.

When Sefo was Mirandized, he agreed to cooperate with officers and answer questions. According to the suspect, he stated that all accusations made against him were untrue and that the items that were recovered and returned to the victim were his property. Sefo further states that the car he was trying to sell was his late father’s car and that his father gave it to him before he passed. 

Sefo is facing three criminal counts —burglary in the second degree, stealing and trespass, with bail being set at $5,000.